JJA Member Updates: August 2013

Looking for proof that jazz is alive and well? You’ll find the most recent publications and other work reported by the extremely active members of the Jazz Journalists Association after the jump. We never sleep! If you are a JJA member and would like your recent activities included in the next installment of Member Updates, send a brief paragraph beginning with your name to membernews@jazzjournalists.org by September 3, 2013.

Nancy Barell‘s 209th Edition of “Jazz Spotlight On Sinatra” is broadcasting 24/7. She report, “In this program I featured many songs from Ed O’Brien’s book ‘101 Best Sinatra Recordings and the The Stories Behind Them’. Ed is The Authority on Sinatra’s music and I am pleased to call him my friend. I play Frank and jazz singers and instrumentalists who have recorded the great standards.”

Jane Ira Bloom performs compositions from her Mental Weather Project at Chamber Music America’s New Music in Bryant Park Series at the NY Public Library’s Upper Terrace on 5th Ave & 42nd St. on Friday, August 23rd at 6:00pm. Her quartet features Dawn Clement on piano and keyboards, Dean Johnson on bass, and Matt Wilson on drums.

Stephanie J. Castillo has completed Round One of her filming for Night Bird Song: The Thomas Chapin Story. It ended July 24 with 20 interviews in the can and footage from a July 8 Hartford, CT jazz concert performance by Chapin’s bassist and close friend Mario Pavone and his Orange Double Tenor septet. Castillo is now preparing to edit a new fundraising trailer to show to arts funders and potential corporate sponsors.

Steve Cerra conducted and posted to his blog a 6,000-word interview with Gary Giddins.

Renetta DeBlase attended Brian Charette’s performance at the Twins Jazz club in Washington, DC, and enjoyed listening to his organ playing with Paul Bollenback on guitar and Jordan Young on drums. She also hope JJA members will read her review of Mingus Speaks by John Goodman posted recently on the JJA News web site.

Pamela Espeland interviewed Reid Anderson about The Rough Mixes, his new work for chamber ensemble, percussion, electronics and video that debuted in St. Paul in June (Minneapolis StarTribune). She recently finished writing part of the program for the 2013 Monterey Jazz Festival, which takes place September 20-22. She blogs about jazz at bebopified.com and regularly features upcoming jazz performances in her twice-weekly Artscape column at MinnPost.com, a nonprofit news and analysis website in Minnesota.

Ken Franckling profiled Gregory Porter in the August issue of Hot House in advance of the singer-songwriter’s Newport, Litchfield and Jazz Standard appearances. Ken returned to Rhode Island in early August to cover the Newport Jazz Festival for the 30th consecutive year, this time on assignment for Jazz Times, as well as his own Jazz Notes blog.

Steve Griggs is presenting his Historic Site Specific new music at the Panama Hotel in Seattle. A preview of this project is the cover story in Earshot Jazz for August.

Rudy Lu had a photo of Chris Brubeck included in Paul D Boyer’s book, The Rickenbacker Electric Bass-50 years as Rock’s Bottom (Hal-Leonard Books). He also photographed the Vincent Gardner Quartet at Skidmore Jazz Institute in Saratoga Springs, NY; a jam session at 9 Maple Avenue in Saratoga Springs, and the Caramoor Jazz Festival for albanyjazz.com and nippertown.com.

Bill Minor contributed copy for twenty-eight shelters on the MJF/Monterey-Salinas Transit JAZZBUS routes, now fully up and running; Bill presented two “Book Launch” events, with original live music, for his The Inherited Heart: An American Memoir–a third coming up at the Museum of Monterey on August 24; a filmed version of the second will be shown on CTV (Santa Cruz) throughout August. He now has a blog up and running.

Allen Morrison recently completed a profile/interview of Gregory Porter for an upcoming issue of DownBeat. His features about alto saxophonist Tia Fuller and singer Bobby McFerrin appeared in the magazine’s August and July issues, respectively. He also wrote a profile of composer/multi-reedist Joshua Kwassman for the July issue. His reviews of the Toronto Jazz Festival and the Eliane Elias Trio’s Toronto show appeared on DownBeat.com.

Peter Pullman will be playing Bud Powell’s music and presenting from his biography, WAIL: The Life of Bud Powell, in the talk tent at Detroit Jazz Festival. The tent will have presentations throughout the festival, which runs from 30 August to 2 September, with a great lineup of musicians.

Karl Stober is involved in a new book concerning addiction and creativity–how addiction effects the creative process—and is looking for interviews on this subject. He is also working on several reviews and possible interviews with Yoko Ono and Aaron Neville. He is in the process of coming up with new column concepts to sell to several mainstream music magazines. Finally, he is developing a new music website for jazz journalists, reviewers,fans, and interviewers.

Jeff Tamarkin is working on an Eddie Henderson feature story for JazzTimes, and recently reviewed CDs by David Weiss, Christian Wallumrod, Bob Mover, Yellowjackets, Oscar Pettiford, Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd and the newest four from the Smalls Live label.

Scott H. Thompson has begun his own public relations/publicity business, Scott Thompson PR. He is working with clients including: Ted Nash, Loston Harris, Antonio Ciacca, Elio Villafranca, The Blues Broads and Nicole Zuraitis. Thompson completed a 9-year run at Jazz at Lincoln Center as Assistant Director of Public Relations.

F. Norman Vickers helped coordinate a jazz photography exhibit by Duncan Schiedt for the Jazz Society of Pensacola and the Pensacola Museum of Art. This was a prelude to the Jazz Society’s 30th annual, free, two-day Jazz Festival. He is a retired physician and serious amateur multi-instrumentalist. He was a founder of the Jazz Society and reviews books and recordings on their website.

Joyce Wilson continues transcribing newspaper and magazine reviews as well as articles for author and JJA member W. Royal Stokes for a project he currently has in progress. She just attended the 18th Annual Central Ave Jazz Festival. She is also planning on spending some time on her blog site IT’S A JAZZ THANG! which seems to have been placed on the back burner, while she maintains a daily life schedule.

Deanna Witkowski recently performed a week of solo piano for her ninth straight year as part of Bryant Park’s Piano in the Park series. Her trio plays on August 18th at Park Avenue Christian Church. She also goes into the studio later this month to finish a new recording with Vanderlei Pereira’s Brazilian jazz group, Blindfold Test.

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